Newsletter

Morning arrives in Nanchang

It's just after 6 a.m. in Nanchang, China, and the sounds of a city awakening are beginning to filter through the open door of the balcony to my hotel room.

We arrived late Thursday afternoon after a harrowing four-hour bus ride from Jingdezhen. Cows, chickens, pedestrians and scooters sometimes share the narrow two-lane road between the cities.

Our drivers showed us often that the most daring man with the loudest horn get the right-of-way, regardless of whose lane he chooses to use.

Sometimes, even the college students fulfilling their required military training are in the streets. As we rolled up to our hotel, squadrons of new recruits in blue camoflauge were learning to march, their white-gloved hands clutching rifles as they went.

By 10 p.m. the boulevard near the hotel was dead silent. I stood for several minutes, looking at connecting streets.

The traffic lights switched steadily from green to yellow to red, but there wasn't a single car on the road. A few motorcycles and a heavy truck have ventured out, but no signs of a rush-hour yet.

Our delegation takes a day-trip todayto JiuJiang City to visit the university there.